Chapter 93 - Damn Reincarnation

Samar

The dark elf’s expression changed abruptly in the raging wind. He quickly retreated, reaching for his waist, but Eugene reached him even faster.

Of course he did. The wind he had raised served only to startle the dark elf. He had used Blink to move.

His empty hand reached for the dark elf, who did not let himself be caught so easily. The dark elf arched backward. Despite his unstable posture, he flipped in place like an acrobat, swinging a leg toward Eugene’s head.

Eugene gave a little snort of laughter. He turned his outstretched hand and met the kick with the back of it. He did more than knock the blow aside. The wind following his hand swallowed the dark elf’s body.

“Ghh!”

The wind was as sharp as blades. Caught at its center, the dark elf shielded his head with both arms and drew on his power.

ROAR!

Gray mana wrapped around his body.

‘His mana is decent, but his demonic energy is nothing special.’

It was only slightly better than a low-ranking demon’s. His skill, however, was far superior to one’s.

Like elves, dark elves lived long lives. A hundred-year-old human was an old person who might die at any moment without surprising anyone, but a hundred-year-old elf was treated as a child by their own kind.

Elves were one of the races blessed with an abundance of time. Simply devoting all those years to diligent mana training would make them strong enough to look down on humans.

Did that mean elves were invariably superior to humans?

Not necessarily. Three hundred years ago, Vermouth had been human. So had Moron, Anise, Senya, and Hamel. Humans outnumbered elves by tens or hundreds of times, and among that teeming population, monsters occasionally emerged who rendered the difference in lifespan meaningless.

The dark elf who had come here had never imagined he was facing such a monster.

Now, he had no need to imagine it. The reality was plain. He could not understand why—or how—he had been slammed into the ground. His present circumstances lay far beyond everything he knew.

“... Guh.”

Though he still did not understand, his lips parted and blood spurted out. A simple, clean shoulder throw. Was that all? No. He had taken several more blows before hitting the ground.

He had thrust out the arm holding his dagger. It had been caught, then twisted.

As his arm was pulled forward, an elbow had slammed into his ribs. That single blow had shattered his mana shield and broken his bones.

An upward punch had clipped his chin. His consciousness had cut out for an instant.

Then he had been driven into the ground, back first. His arm, his ribs, his shoulder... His whole body tingled as though he had been electrocuted. His bones were not the only things damaged; his internal organs must have been injured too, because every breath brought up blood and its metallic smell.

It had been pathetic and futile. It could hardly even be called a fight. Gasping for breath, the dark elf glared at Eugene. He knew that, but he was no warrior. He felt no respect for the opponent who had defeated him.

“You human bastard...!”

Drawing out a dark elf had been intentional. Rather than raid their base, Eugene had intended to use Jackson to make the dark elves pursue him.

Had Jackson been too frightened to do anything, he would not have been able to lure them out. But Eugene had been certain the man would not stay quiet. That was why he had gone so far as to cut off his hand at the wrist.

“I’m not sure how to respond to that. I am human, and I am a bastard. Am I supposed to take that as an insult?”

Eugene sneered as he brushed dirt from his cloak. The dark elf coughed up blood again and planted his still-intact left arm against the ground.

“I’ll kill—”

It was something people commonly said in situations like this. In other words, it was not worth listening to. Without hesitation, Eugene raised his foot and stomped on the dark elf’s left hand.

CRUNCH!

Bones shattered.

“Aaaagh!”

Unable to endure the pain, the dark elf screamed.

Apart from their looks, the most striking feature of elves was their long ears. Those ears heard a great deal, befitting their length.

That exceptional hearing made the dark elf understand his situation more precisely. His scream was not traveling far; it was lingering in the immediate area.

‘Magic...!’

The sound had been blocked from spreading. The dark elf stopped screaming and struggled to pull his crushed hand free. Eugene did not release it. Instead, he crouched where he stood and looked into the dark elf’s eyes.

Brown skin. Scarlet eyes. Those traits had not changed in three hundred years. With an indifferent expression, Eugene reached out.

He pulled down the dark elf’s cloak and tore open his collar. The dark elf’s eyes wavered. His face twisted, and he spat the blood pooled in his mouth at Eugene’s face.

“You son of a bitch! I’d rather die than be raped by the likes of—”

“What the fuck are you babbling about? Why would I rape you?”

For one thing, this dark elf was a man. Even if he had been a woman, Eugene would not have batted an eye. Not once had Eugene forced himself on a woman, even during his life as a mercenary in his previous incarnation.

“Let’s see... Yes, just as I thought.”

Eugene stared at the tattoo stretching from the dark elf’s left collarbone down to his chest. It depicted an inverted mountain goat’s skull. The horns were unusual: one pair curved, and another pair jutted upward.

An inverted mountain goat’s skull with two pairs of horns. It was the symbol of the Demon King of Fury. Having that tattoo on his chest was proof that he served that Demon King.

‘If he’d been alive three hundred years ago, he couldn’t possibly be this pathetic.’

He had probably become a dark elf or entered Iris’s service relatively recently. Or perhaps he was young. Either way, there was no doubt that this dark elf was one of Iris’s subordinates.

“There are some things I’d like to ask you. I’d prefer it if you cooperated willingly.”

“Kill me.”

The dark elf spat out the words. Wasn’t it obvious what a hunter would ask? Even if it meant his death, he had no intention of talking about his own kind.

“If you’re going to die anyway, wouldn’t you rather die comfortably?”

Despite saying that, Eugene did not expect to make the dark elf talk easily. That was why he had blocked the sounds here from carrying far.

He did not enjoy torture, but neither was he the sort to hesitate when it was necessary. He took the dagger he had confiscated from the dark elf.

“This looks like it’ll take a while. Don’t wait up. You can go to sleep first.”

“I can help.”

Kristina rose. Eugene let out a disbelieving laugh and looked back.

“How? Will you recite prayers until he repents? Or grind his fingers to pieces with a mace?”

“I won’t use such rough methods.”

Smiling brightly, Kristina approached Eugene. He shrugged, stepped over the dark elf, and pulled both of the man’s arms behind his back, holding them there.

“What are you planning to do?”

“Interrogate him.”

Kristina drew her wand. She pressed the cross at its tip against her chest and gazed at the dark elf with a clear, bright smile.

Soon, Kristina’s lips began to move. A quiet incantation brought forth a flare of divine power. The blue jewel set at the center of the cross resonated with that power and shone.

The shimmering light moved toward the dark elf. Corrupted by demonic energy, dark elves instinctively rejected divine power. He writhed, drenched in cold sweat.

“Look at me.”

Kristina whispered. Her smile was benevolent, her voice as gentle as though she were soothing a small child.

‘This is...’

Holding the dark elf from behind, Eugene was looking directly at Kristina. He did not know what divine magic she was using. Anise had never used anything like it.

But while studying magic at Akron, he had encountered many different kinds. Though he could not learn divine magic himself, he had read several books about it.

Mental magic took a different direction from ordinary magic. In Aroth, the Black Tower was the only place that studied it in depth.

Yet it was said that, beyond the bounds of “magic,” the art most adept at molding the “mind” at will was not black magic, but divine magic.

The inquisitors of the Holy Empire. Three hundred years ago, when black mages were shunned, the inquisitors of Yuras were their most terrifying nightmare. Everyone in that era was hostile toward black mages, but the inquisitors of Yuras did not even regard them as human.

Inquisitors in the present age were not as brutal as they had been three hundred years ago. These were no longer times when someone could be hunted simply for being a black mage.

Nevertheless, inquisitors still existed in Yuras. They monitored the Holy Empire’s priests and warned them against wavering in their faith.

“... You know how to use divine magic like this too?”

“I do not enjoy it.”

“You should have used it earlier.”

“On the information broker? He was ill-natured, but he was an ordinary human, and he was not a follower of the Light. This divine magic must not be used on such a person.”

Kristina put away her wand and stood. The dark elf, who had been stammering out words until a moment ago, now hung his head, mumbling sounds that no longer formed words.

“... As you can see... a confession that breaks the will and draws out what truly lies in the heart destroys the mind.”

Anise might have been able to use it, but she had never used magic like that.

“For that reason, this interrogation magic must not be used carelessly, and I myself dislike it. But... he is a corrupted elf. There is no reason to hesitate to interrogate him.”

As she spoke, Kristina clasped her hands in prayer.

“Through his confession, we have taken another step toward our noble purpose. Surely God will also heed his confession and admit his soul, darkened by corruption, into the garden of Light.”

“You mean I can kill him?”

“You will not be killing him, but purifying his soul.”

Kristina spoke with a radiant smile.

A woman like a snake.

She was not exactly like Anise, but Kristina, too, had inscrutable sides to her. They were also alike in the nasty intentions concealed behind their smiles.

Eugene rose, gripping the limp dark elf by the back of the neck. The man was still mumbling. Eugene intended to kill him somewhere out of the way, but Kristina did not stay behind. She followed him.

He let her do as she pleased. Instead of slitting the dark elf’s throat, Eugene laid him down and placed a hand on his chest. A short while later, the dark elf’s heart stopped.

Kristina watched with surprise in her eyes, then approached the dark elf whose heart had stopped and knelt beside him. She clasped her hands and prayed for a moment before raising her wand.

The light she summoned flared and engulfed his body. Before long, the dark elf’s corpse turned to ash and vanished.

“... Omniscient and omnipotent God of Light, please receive this fallen soul and watch over him. Illuminate the darkness shrouding his soul with your light, and burn away the sins of his life with holy fire.”

Kristina’s prayer was similar to the one carved on Hamel’s grave, yet different. Prayers were all much the same, really.

“Was I of help?”

Her prayer finished, Kristina stood.

“Yes.”

Eugene answered honestly. Without Kristina’s interrogation, he would have had to torture the dark elf through the forest’s long night.

“Let’s put off resting.”

“Are you concerned about pursuit?”

The dark elf had been alone, without any companions. Even so, they could not continue camping at the place where they had encountered him. There was no harm in being cautious, so it would be better to keep moving through the predawn hours.

“We’ve got a long way to go, too.”

They had learned several things through the interrogation.

Though Eugene had already confirmed it through the tattoo, he had heard directly from the dark elf that he served Iris.

Fury’s Independence Army.

Apparently, it was an organization led by Iris and composed entirely of dark elves. While expanding their power by recruiting elves in Samar, they were also searching for the still-undiscovered elven domain.

They had learned other things about the elves as well.

Elves who refused the invitation to become dark elves headed deep into the Great Forest.

They knew how valuable they were as slaves, and they also knew that many of the savage tribes living in the Great Forest had no respect for elves.

Every elf’s goal was to enter the elven domain where the World Tree towered. But the way there had been blocked, so the elves unable to enter had gathered with what few of their kin they could find and built a new village.

Reaching that village from the outskirts of Samar would take at least a month, even at the fastest pace.

‘... A guardian...’

A village where wandering elves gathered. A guardian who protected it from attacks by hunters and savage tribes.

“... He said the elves there shun humans.”

“We just have to make them welcome us.”

“How?”

“Do you think elves dislike gifts?”

Eugene shrugged as he answered.

“There’s no one in the world who dislikes gifts.”

The dark elf they had interrogated knew nothing about the domain. Just as Eugene had concluded, he was a young elf from the outside, not someone born within it.

Eugene was looking for an elf born in the domain.

‘Preferably one who knows about Senya.’

If an elf had left the domain around two hundred years ago, might they not have encountered Senya?